Is Europe America’s Friend or Foe?

Since Donald Trump took office as US president, a new cottage industry in rational theories of his seemingly irrational behavior has developed. On one issue, however, no amount of theorizing has made sense of Trump: his treatment of America's oldest and most reliable ally.

PARIS – Since Donald Trump became US president in January 2017, his conduct has been astonishingly erratic, but his policies have been more consistent than foreseen by most observers. Trump’s volatility has been disconcerting, but on the whole he has acted in accordance with promises made on the campaign trail and with views held long before anyone considered his election possible. Accordingly, a new cottage industry in rational theories of Trump’s seemingly irrational behavior has developed.

The latest challenge is to make sense of his stance towards Europe. At a rally on June 28, he said: “We love the countries of the European Union. But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States. And you know what, we can’t let that happen.” During his recent trip to the continent, he called the EU “a foe” and said it was “possibly as bad as China.” Regarding Brexit, he declared that British Prime Minister Theresa May should have “sued” the EU. Then came the truce, on July 25: Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, agreed to work jointly on an agenda of free trade and World Trade Organization reform.

So it seems we are friends again – or perhaps just resting before the dispute resumes. But the deeper question remains: Why has Trump repeatedly attacked America’s oldest and most reliable ally? Why does he seem to despise the EU so deeply? Why should the US try to undermine Europe, rather than seeking closer cooperation to protect its economic and geopolitical interests?

Jean Pisani-Ferry, a professor at the Hertie School of Governance (Berlin) and Sciences Po (Paris), holds the Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa chair at the European University Institute and is a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank.

Jean Pisani-Ferry asks whether Trump sees Europe as a “friend” or a “foe.” At a rally in Wisconsin last month, he said: “We love the countries of the European Union. But the European Union, of course, was set up to take advantage of the United States. And you know what, we can’t let that happen.”During his trip to Europe two weeks ago, he called the EU “a foe” and said it was “possibly as bad as China.” Trump sees the EU as a “foe” because he hates multilateral organisations. The EU acts as an aggregate and strengthens weaker and smaller member states in standing up to the US. He prefers bilateral deals with each European country, which allows him to bully the inferior counterparts. His goal is to break up the EU so that he can weaken its bargaining power in trade negotiations. He is also a mercantilist of the 17th and 18th centuries, and believes that a country should try to maximise exports and minimise imports. He embraces a zero-sum view of that era – nothing was win-win, and everything was win-lose, in the absence of mutual trust.Dispite the “truce” last week, when Trump and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, “agreed to work jointly on an agenda of free trade and World Trade Organization reform,” it’s unclear how long it will last. That Trump did not hesitate to impose tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU and Canada on grounds of protecting “America’s national security” shows his treachery. He has no sense of camaraderie – these decent countries have been America’s “closest” trade partners and important military allies for decades.The author is outraged that Trump said the EU were “as bad as China,” given Beijing’s “rapid emergence as a strategic rival” and America’s “main national security issue.” China has benefitted hugely from the current global order to thrive, while having no intention to converge with the West – “neither politically nor economically.” In fact it is aiming to define its own rules and norms. The Communist Party under Xi Jinping seeks to present China as a model for other countries, a meritocratic autocracy that has presided over fast economic growth and avoided the chaos and paralysis that have beset democracies. China’s “Belt and Road Initiative” aims to expand its geopolitical clout, “building clienteles” in a way that critics see as debt-trap diplomacy. In exchange for financing and building the infrastructure that poorer countries need, Beijing demands favourable access to their natural resources and strategic assets like ports. With its “significant” military build-up, China should be “the number one challenge to US world supremacy,” not Europe. Obsessed with trade imbalances, Trump has ignored the fact that he would need Europe as his ally to stand up to China. He killed Obama’s projects by shelving the Trans-Pacific Partnership that aimed to curb Beijing’s influence in Asia, and gutting the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership that would strengthen the Transatlantic ties. Doing Putin’s bidding he is seeking to break up the EU, because both men see an assertive Europe as a threat to America and Russia. It explains why “no US president had ever presented the EU as a plot to weaken the US. Indeed, all of Trump’s postwar predecessors would have recoiled in horror at the idea of the EU’s dissolution.”The author says Trump “has gone too far for Europe to dismiss the more dismal scenarios.” The EU needs to look out for itself, resolving its “main problem” which is more “political,” than “economic.” It is time to tackle the many challenges the EU is facing – the North and South, and East and West divides, and the dilemma of whether to put national interests ahead of shared values and common goals.

Global ambitions of world domination is the explicit aim.The design of the European Union is to dislodge America and Britain.France and Germany together have created The EU with one goal.And President Trump has called them out - hence the angst.Brussels had outsourced Security - Trump called them out.Brussels had outsourced Migration to Britain - Brexit called that out.Brussels outsourced Economics to Germany - Nein to Transfer Union sums it up.

Most of Europe does not want these confrontations.An Association of South and East European Nations - A.S.E.A.N - perhaps.But France and Germany have historical accounts to settle.And the two built the Brussels Politburo to create the EUSSR.

Once the problem is correctly defined - the solution takes Five minutes.Should France and Germany wish to pursue dreams of Global domination.They should be free to do so - like Russia and China.The Security of France/Germany cannot be underwritten by The Anglosphere.America Britain Canada are NATO members - guaranteeing France/Germany.THE WEST WAS CREATED IN 1945 - AS A COLLECTIVE SECURITY GUARANTEE.BRUSSELS POLITBURO HAS HIJACKED THE AGENDA.Brexit and Trump - both are consequences.

There are many solutions - but first the problem needs definitions.NATO was created with Three Goals :Keep the Russians out.Keep the Americans in.Keep the Germans down.70 years later, EUSSR has changed those Goals.The Anglosphere will not be signatories to their New Goals.

Pisani-Ferry correctly writes : "If the EU fails to define itself for a world that is fundamentally different from that of ten years ago, it probably will not survive as a meaningful institution." Both the EU and NATO are artifacts of the Cold War. The Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact, China, and Communism generally were seen by the US and Capitalism as existential threats. Putin's Russia today is closer to the Czar's Russia in the context of European geopolitics. If Putin and Xi come closer together, it will be a new existential threat, not to capitalism, but to the distribution of political, military, and economic power relationships.

The EU is a trade bloc. The Obama TTIP initiative would have dragged on and on as negotiators played games with details and counter-proposals. Trump has no patience with this sort of approach and uses threats to get action on his proposals. Not "cricket," well, too bad. Similarly, against whom is NATO a protective umbrella, the proto-fascist countries of Eastern Europe who hope to use the US for military cover while they destroy the so-called "values" basis for the EU? The only "value" neoliberal, capitalist EU/Europe has today is the expansion of its zone of economic control to include Ukraine - another country whose "values" run counter to those allegedly promoted by the EU.

The EU and NATO have served their original purposes well, but these purposes have become ossified in institutional and bureaucratic inertia. It's time for a change.

There is nothing mysterious here about Pres. Trump's attitude. He believes the EU has been taking advantage of the USA in the area of trade. Compare the tariffs by the USA and EU to find out if this is true. The same is true regarding trade with China, Japan, Canada and Mexico. Look at the trade balances and dispense with the philosophizing.

Trump’s comments on European culture and immigration merely reveal his total ignorance of European history. For centuries people from within and beyond Europe have moved from country to country and with this ‘culture’ has continually evolved.

Even citizens of the USA have influenced European culture from everything from the large number of troops based in Europe at various times to the bombardment of innumerable American media products. Perhaps Europe should start to protect its culture by excluding USA TV programs and asking Trump to take all his troops home because they are damaging our culture.

"Clientele".? ...it is more like "Unpaid and Heavily Indebted Slaves", a Greece Replica. In any event, if all these arms deals that were allegedly committed to by Trump, Macron and Putin come to fruition, we shall have very expensive and devastating "Chinese" fireworks ....all over the place, not excluding Europe, and more especially.....La France.

The question is however somewhat naive ! It was Eisenhower who stated the US had to have an enemy and innthe absence of one It would be necessary to invent one.The extreme right reliesmto a very large degree on generating fear to acquìre followers, fear of the unknown, fear of the different, fear of foreigners. Trump's policy is to generate a "Fortress America" atmosphere. This sells well especially with his core following, the somewhat xenophobic and very insular Mid America. By cultivating an heroic 'it's us alone against the world' he is singing their tune, confirming their carefully cultivated fears and ensuring his re-election which is after all what interests him before all else.It should be noted that such as Gert Wilder, Marine LePenn, Reece Mogg, Nigel Farage all rely on identical themes to scare people into following them. Interestingly the victims never bother to rationalise as to the well foundedness or otherwise of these statements, it is rather as though someone in a crowded hall screamed FIRE! No one bother to check if there is a fire all rush unthinkingly for the exits.

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